Kamloops This Week
Dan Hines freely admits his rivals in next year’s provincial election will have one advantage over him.
One day before Hines was acclaimed the B.C. Green Party candidate for Kamloops-North Thompson, party leader and MLA Andrew Weaver said the party will refuse donations from corporations and unions, in line with the party’s call for a ban on all but individual donations.
But, Hines said, even on a far more limited budget than his B.C. Liberal and NDP counterparts, he’s optimistic the riding and the province are ready for something new.
“I feel it’s in the zeitgeist of the province right now, that something is happening,” Hines told supporters at a meeting in Kamloops recently.
Hines, a facilitator and Anglican priest, said he plans to make up for a smaller war chest with seven months of hard campaigning.
“I’ve got this body and I’ve got the bodies of some amazing volunteers,” he said.
“Elections are really won person-to-person, especially in a more intimate community like the North Thompson,” he said.
“It’s going to be one conversation at a time, one person that’s convinced that voting for the Green Party is in full alignment with their head and their heart.”
Hines said his campaign is driven by concern over man-made climate change, noting atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels are now above 400 parts per million — a symbolic level some climate groups have described as a tipping point in carbon pollution — even during the time of year when atmospheric carbon dioxide is typically at its lowest.
“Every time we hit a new threshold, every time we have the hottest year on record, we know we need to do more than just the rhetoric and talk around climate change,” he said.
Hines said the Greens will put a “real price” on carbon and encourage more development of clean energy.
He also called for an improved environmental-assessment process for projects like the proposed Ajax mine, which both he and Kamloops-South Thompson Green candidate Donovan Cavers oppose.
The riding should also expect to see more of Weaver.
In an email read at the meeting, the party leader said he plans to appear alongside Hines during the campaign.
In Kamloops-North Thompson, Hines joins a still-developing field of candidates, alongside the NDP’s Barb Nederpel and Communist Peter Kerek.
A three-way race between Mayor Peter Milobar, Steven Puhallo and Mike Grenier for the B.C. Liberal nomination is ongoing. Current MLA and Health Minister Terry Lake is not seeking re-election.